During the net neutrality debate we saw a lot of criticism heaped on people like Senator Mike Lee and Ajit Pai, a Republican member of the FCC, when they warned that adopting these policies would raise prices for consumers. Politifact gave Mike Lee a “Half True” for warning costs would increase, but insisted that the net result was not clear. It’s been all of a few weeks since the deal was inked now and the results are starting to trickle in. I’ll bet you could never guess which way the answer is going…

Every month, consumers pay a small fee on their phone bills for a federal program that uses the money — a total of $8.8 billion raised nationwide last year — to provide affordable access to telecommunications services in rural areas, underserved inner cities and schools.